


You Look Like You've Seen A Ghost

by Salt_Teen



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: AU i guess?, Car Accidents, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Half-Siblings, Elijah Kamski Being an Asshole, Gavin Reed Needs a Hug, Gavin Reed is Bad at Feelings, Gen, Survivor Guilt, chloe was a human once, gavin and chloe are also half siblings, he is nothing if not a pretentious bastard, mother fucker ultimate, past ones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:20:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23781469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salt_Teen/pseuds/Salt_Teen
Summary: "He should have gotten over her by now, but it was so hard when her face was everywhere. Reminding him that she was gone, reminding him that she couldn’t be replaced."Gavin doesn't know how to move on from Chloe. How could he? She was around every corner. A fragment of what he'd lost. A reminder.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

“Chloe? Chloe, c’mon please don’t do this to me!”

Gavin and Elijah had a good relationship. It had to be a good one if they were to survive. Elijah’s father had been unfaithful, two children had come of it. Gavin had been more than enough. More than enough to upset the balance of things. Everyone knew why he was alive in the first place.

The very thought of it festered under the floorboards of the house. Walls caved in, suffocating everything inside.

Gavin’s relationship with Elijah was good, but his relationship with Chloe was better. It meant more to him. She  _ understood  _ what it was like to be unplanned, unwanted. Elijah, for how smart he was, would never understand.

“Chloe,” Gavin shakes her desperately, like she’ll wake up if he does it hard enough, “Please, please,  _ please don’t leave me. _ “

Chloe was older than Elijah and him by about two years. She was eighteen, ambitious and full of energy. Fresh out of family, but ready to take on the world. Gavin’s mom had found Chloe’s mom, and from there, things happened. Bonds formed, Gavin had finally found someone he could depend on one hundred percent.

They were supposed to help each other. 

How it all went down didn't matter anymore.

Her favorite navy blue jacket engulfs her, it makes her look younger than she is. Too young to be crushed between her car seat and the steering wheel. 

Too young to die.

“Elijah,” Gavin hiccups, tears sting the diagonal gash over his face, “Elijah, she won’t wake up.”

No answer. He turns around as best as he can. Why was there no answer? 

Elijah is slumped over in the back seat, he looks fine from where Gavin is sitting, but so had Chloe. Her skin is pale, but otherwise, she looks like she’s sleeping. Stringy, blonde hair falls around her face, her usual ponytail half messy from a day of wear and tear.

Today was supposed to be a good day. They were a few kids out past their curfew on Halloween. Nobody was supposed to get hurt.

She hadn’t seen the other car, none of them had, and it had sped away from the accident as soon as it had happened. Gavin didn't see them drive away, but he heard.

He’s scared for a moment that Elijah is also gone, but he sees the slow rise and fall of his shoulders. His fingernails dig harder into Chloe’s arm, he’d give anything for her to swat his arm away.

Gavin would take her place in a heartbeat.

But he can't. 

The last minute before the crash replays over and over in his head. Chloe singing along with the radio, almost dancing in her seat. Gavin quietly singing with her, drumming with one hand against the side of his seat, Elijah in the back, enjoying the moment no matter how hard he’d deny it later.

Metal crunching, glass shattering, and a scream cut short. 

“Chloe?”

It has quieted down from his previous screaming. Each time he says her name it sounds more hollow, more hopeless. But he can't stop, he has to believe that if he says it enough she’ll wake up.

Chloe will wake up, and they’ll laugh about it later. 

She just has to wake up first.

“Chloe?”

“Chloe?”

“Chloe?”

He tastes blood in his mouth, and he thinks his arm might be broken. She doesn’t answer him. He keeps asking anyway.

“Chloe?”

"Gavin, she's not going to answer."

He can't think straight. He can't even tell if he's breathing. 

"Chloe?"


	2. Chapter 2

It doesn't make any sense. 

Is Elijah just supposed to put all his time and effort into caring for people who could disappear on him at any moment?

He wakes up to the sound of Gavin's voice. It is shaking and numb, echoing back on itself with no answer or end. Gavin keeps calling for Chloe, but Elijah can see how still she is. She isn't breathing, and probably won't ever again.

The stillness of her body, the orange street light shining through the car, the dark sludge dripping down Gavin's face. If Elijah can get all the facts, he can rationalize things.

Everything is an experiment. This one has been about whether or not caring is worth the effort.

If the sinking feeling in his stomach is anything to go by, it's not. 

_ Do people just do this? Do they just put unnecessary time into relationships that will eventually end? What's the point? _

_ Why don't they understand? _

"Chloe?"

Why doesn't  _ he  _ understand? 

"Gavin, she's not going to answer."

"Chloe?"

"She's dead."

Gavin doesn't look back at him, but Elijah can see the way his face crumbles. The way it shatters before being pulled together again.

"Come on, Gav, let me look at your face." 

Gavin doesn't move. He leaves it to Elijah to call for help, to pry his fingers away from dead skin, to pull him out of the car, and to check him over for injuries.

The injury on his face won't heal right, Elijah knows it for a fact. It will become the victim of picking fingernails and poor care. Gavin won't let it heal no matter how much anyone badgers him.

Maybe he would listen to Chloe, but that's no longer an option. 

Guilt gnaws at Elijah's stomach. Perhaps he should have been watching. Maybe he shouldn't have given in when Chloe and Gavin begged him to go out driving. 

_ Why do I feel guilty? All I did was survive. _

Normally, Elijah doesn't let anyone else drive his car. But he was tired, and not stupid, and there was no way  _ Gavin  _ was driving them anywhere. So Chloe drove.

So Chloe died. 

If Elijah had been driving, he wouldn't have gone this way. If Elijah had been driving, no one would have died. 

If this is what it feels like to care, then Elijah never wants to do it again. 


	3. Chapter 3

Gavin knows.

He hasn't talked to Elijah in a year and a half, but he knows. 

The second he sees Chloe, standing across the street with a shopping bag in her non-dominant hand, he is certain.

It only solidifies in his mind as time passes. As he sees her pushing strollers, carrying bags and boxes, and shadowing people of every size, shape, and color. 

Gavin knows two things, really.

The first is simple, it isn't Chloe. 

No matter how much it hurts, no matter when or where he sees her, no matter how much he wishes it could be. It isn't her.  _ It  _ is an imitation.

_ It's not alive. It's not alive. It's not alive.  _

"Will this be all today?" 

Gavin doesn't answer, he just pushes the energy drink he just set down closer to the cash register.

The ST200 behind the counter smiles at him, picking up the drink to ring it up. 

He probably looks nervous. He feels nervous, at least. How can he not be? 

It is a carbon copy of the Chloe he knew, but it would never be like her. It would never hold itself like she did, it would never speak like she did, and it would never act like she did. 

_ It's not alive. It's not alive. It's not alive.  _

He thinks it the whole drive up to the precinct. It doesn't stop and it does nothing to loosen the tight coil in his stomach. 

The android's face stays in his mind longer than he should let it. Every second of the brief interaction settles into the back of his mind like a cat laying down to nap. 

ST200s are becoming less common, newer models taking their place. Gavin is thankful for it, but he can't help but wonder.

Elijah had taken Chloe's face for an android. Where have these other faces come from? Have the newer ones  _ actually  _ been put together to look friendly, or was something else happening?

That is the second thing Gavin knows.

He knew the minute he first saw the ST200 that Elijah was playing god.

And what a god Elijah could play. 

**Author's Note:**

> concept that hit me in the head exactly five seconds before i fell asleep a few weeks ago
> 
> im not going anywhere with this, just playing with/ fleshing out an idea


End file.
